Provider management of referral orders

Abstract

Methods, computer systems, and computer-readable storage media are provided for creating a provider-specific unified patient referral worklist that helps the provider manage incoming and outgoing referral orders. The unified patient referral worklist is generated by aggregating referral orders for patients from different medical organizations and determining which of the referral orders are associated with the provider. The unified patient referral worklist enables the provider to easily create new referral orders by presenting a plurality of referral order options.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . One or more computer-readable storage media having embodied thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a server, perform a method of generating a unified patient referral worklist useable by a provider to manage patient referrals, the method comprising:
 receiving, from a first medical organization, a first referral order for a first patient;   receiving, from a second medical organization, a second referral order for a second patient, wherein the first medical organization and the second medical organization maintain disparate medical record systems;   determining a provider associated with the first referral order and the second referral order, wherein the provider is at least one of a referring provider or a referral provider;   generating a unified patient referral worklist for the provider, the unified patient referral worklist comprising the first referral order and the second referral order; and   presenting the unified patient referral worklist on a user interface of a computing device associated with the provider.   
     
     
         2 . The media of  claim 1 , wherein a referral order comprises an indication of a temporary or permanent transfer of care for a patient from a referring provider to a referral provider. 
     
     
         3 . The media of  claim 1 , wherein the unified patient referral worklist comprises a listing of incoming and outgoing referrals associated with the provider. 
     
     
         4 . The media of  claim 1 , wherein the unified patient referral worklist is filterable and sortable. 
     
     
         5 . The media of  claim 1 , wherein the first and second referral orders include at least the following information:
 (A) patient identifying information,   (B) reason for referral,   (C) payment or insurance information,   (D) referring provider information,   (E) referral provider information, and   (F) status of referral.   
     
     
         6 . The media of  claim 1 , wherein the first and second referral orders on the unified patient referral worklist are selectable. 
     
     
         7 . The media of  claim 6 , further comprising:
 receiving a selection of at least one of the first or second referral orders on the unified patient referral worklist; and   navigating the provider to a user interface presenting additional information about the selected referral order.   
     
     
         8 . The media of  claim 7 , wherein the additional information includes at least:
 (A) additional pending referral orders for either the first patient or the second patient associated with the selected referral order,   (B) referral orders that have occurred in the past for the either the first patient or the second patient associated with the selected referral order,   (C) medical notes concerning the either the first patient or the second patient associated with the selected referral order, and   (D) attachments associated with the selected referral order.   
     
     
         9 . The media of  claim 8 , wherein the additional pending referral orders and the referral orders that have occurred in the past are selectable, and wherein additional information associated with the additional pending referral orders and the referral orders that have occurred in the past is presented upon selection. 
     
     
         10 . A computerized method carried out be a referral service running on one or more processors for generating a patient-centric referral order in a healthcare setting, the method comprising:
 receiving a first referral order for a patient;   receiving a second referral order for the patient;   determining, using the one or more processors, at least one instance of commonality between the first referral order and the second referral order; and   generating a third referral order for the patient based, at least in part, on the at least one instance of commonality, the third referral order comprising at least the first referral order and the second referral order.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , further comprising:
 substantially matching the at least one instance of commonality to at least one item of patient information; and   wherein the generating the third referral for the patient is further based, at least in part, on the substantially matched the at least one instance of commonality and the at least one item of patient information.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the determining the at least one instance of commonality between the first referral order and the second referral order comprises:
 determining a first medical specialty associated with the first referral order;   determining a second medical specialty associated with the second referral order;   determining a location that includes both the first medical specialty and the second medical specialty; and   presenting the location in association with the third referral order.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , further comprising:
 determining a first provider associated with the first medical specialty;   determining a second provider associated with the second medical specialty; and   presenting the first and second providers in association with the third referral order.   
     
     
         14 . One or more computer-readable storage media having embodied thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a server, perform a method of presenting to a provider a plurality of referral order options for a patient, the method comprising:
 generating a plurality of referral order options for the patient, wherein generating the plurality of referral order options comprises:
 (A) determining recommended referrals based at least in part on the patient's medical record and medical standards of care, 
 (B) determining frequently occurring referrals based at least in part on the patient's medical record and referral patterns of the provider, and 
 (C) generating one or more templates useable to create a customized referral order; and 
   presenting the plurality of referral order options on a user interface.   
     
     
         15 . The media of  claim 14 , wherein each of the plurality of referral order options is selectable. 
     
     
         16 . The media of  claim 15 , further comprising:
 receiving a selection of at least one of the plurality of referral order options;   navigating the provider to a detail screen associated with the at least one of the plurality of referral order options, the detail screen comprising a plurality of input fields;   receiving inputs in the plurality of input fields; and   generating a referral order based on the received inputs.   
     
     
         17 . The media of  claim 16 , wherein the detail screen further comprises a patient information display area, the patient information display area presenting medical information associated with the patient. 
     
     
         18 . The media of  claim 16 , wherein the inputs include:
 (A) a reason for referral; and   (B) a medical note outlining general information about the patient.   
     
     
         19 . The media of  claim 18 , wherein the medical note is persisted to additional referral orders being generated for the patient. 
     
     
         20 . The media of  claim 14 , wherein the determining of the recommended referrals is further based on at least one of a provider recommendation or the patient's preference.